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How I’m Saving Money This Week

In an effort to combat our massive medical bills from when Abby was born, frugality is the name of the game at our house lately. In a weird way, I kind of enjoy finding ways to save pennies…most of the time. It’s kind of a little game, finding ways to cut corners and pay those bills off ASAP. So this post is dedicated to the things I’ve done this week to save a buck or two.

Cloth baby wipes. When Abby was born, my mom bought us a MASSIVE box of disposable baby wipes. I vowed that when that supply of wipes was gone, I’d sew up some cloth wipes and make the switch for diaper changes. I know that lots of people who use cloth diapers also use cloth wipes, because hey, you’re doing the laundry anyway. Still, I dreaded the end of our baby wipe supply…which happened to come this week. In an effort to soften my heart toward using cloth wipes, I bought a yard of cutesy flannel to sew into wipes, thinking that it would make it slightly more appealing. I really was dreading it. And so, after using cloth wipes for a week, the verdict is….it really isn’t bad. At all. In fact, I think I prefer cloth wipes to the disposable ones. (GROSS ALERT / POOP TALK AHEAD!) The disposable wipes kind of just smear everything around; the cloth wipes just clean off baby girl’s bum better. I use a solution of tea tree oil, water, and a little baby shampoo and spray it on her bottom and then clean her up. Good as new! Wipe and diaper both go in the wet bag, and we are good to go. I do plan to have a bag of disposable wipes in the diaper bag, because I’m not going to mess with them when we’re out and about or when she’s at a babysitter’s house, but we’re totally going to use them at home. Cha-ching!

Laundry on the line. This week has been perfect clothes-line weather, which is great because I’d been avoiding the hampers for a while now.

In the kitchen. I’ve been searching for ways to save money on meals, so while grocery shopping I picked up some packages of chicken at $.98/pound. I put them in the crockpot, covered them with water, and let it cook overnight. In the morning I de-boned the pieces, shredded the meat, bagged it up in 1 and 2 cup portions to use in future meals, and into the freezer it went. I also strained the stock and froze it to use as chicken stock. Perfect! I’m also making myself get over my fear of cooking fish, doves, and other things that my husband the hunter brings home. We enjoyed some really good fish earlier this week, and last night we smoked dove breasts on the Traeger and they were yum-my. No more being afraid

In other kitchen news, I’ve started cooking and baking from scratch more. I’ve discovered some homemade recipes for things like Bisquick/Jiffy mix, pancake mix, and dry ranch dressing mix (which is AWESOME for seasoning everything from fish to potatoes), so I’m now making those from ingredients that are already in my pantry rather than buying them from the store. Doing it from scratch is most likely a lot healthier, anyway, so it’s kind of a win-win.

Iced coffees. I could spend (and have spent) a small fortune buying these from McDonald’s a few times a week. (Thank goodness the nearest Starbucks is an hour away…I can only imagine the monthly tab if we had one closer to us.) So thanks to Pinterest, I’ve found some fabulouso iced coffee recipes and have been making them at home, and they are pretty darn good. In fact, I think I’ll go have one now. 🙂